0021
Dane
Turning back to her, she is staring at me with those big blue eyes. Her bottom lip quivers a little as she waits for my answer. I didn't want her to go, but what if she was one of these beasts? What would I be letting myself in for?
"Are....Are you going to kill me?" She asks again
"No." It didn't matter what she was.
She clings to the towel wrapped around her which was hitched up around her thighs and barely covering her.
"Put these on." I pass her the sweatshirt and joggers out of the cupboard. I would rather she wore less but it made it a little easier when she was covered up.
'Because that's going to stop you!' Aero muses
Turning away from her, I let her dress. "Why do you think I want you to leave?"
"I'm part of the contract." She doesn't stutter this time, almost like she found it easier to talk to me when I wasn't looking at her.
"You were." I agree, keeping my back to her.
"But I don't plan on killing an innocent woman."
'Don't you dare!' Aero growls at me.
"If you want to leave, you can. I will ensure you are set up and will provide you with everything you need."
'You fucking idiot!' Aero yells. He wasn't the least bit bothered that Neah might not be a proper Wolf.
'I have to give her a chance to think for herself.' I snap at him. 'To let her make her own decisions.'
"Where would I go?" Neah asks quietly
"Wherever you want." I sigh, it sounded like she had already made her decision. "There are plenty of areas where no packs have control. Mutual zones."
'Stop telling her the good things!' Aero was pacing in frustration. And as much as I didn't want her to leave, I felt it was only fair to tell her options.
'Tell her she will be unprotected. That there are more dicks than Trey. Tell her to stay!' I hear her pad across the carpet and settle into the chair and turn to look at her. The soft blue sweatshirt made her blue eyes pop even more.
"Can I think about it?" She asks quietly
"Sure."
She brushes through her hair and I catch the scent of something different mixed in with her strange scent. Lavender. Yet the more I thought about it, the more I realised her strange scent wasn't as strong as it once was. 'Matebond!' Aero chuckles,
'About time you believe it!'
Sometimes, I really wished that Aero and I were separate beings, just so I could punch him.
'Hey!' He moans at me. 'I'm not the one who is pretending. Just fucking claim her.'
"I have to go and check on something." I mutter like some fucking school kid who had bumped into their crush. "If you need me, someone will be able to link me. Don't worry, I'm not leaving the packgrounds."
She nods her head at me while Aero continues to call me an idiot.
'Whatever, we have a beast to interrogate!' I tell him as I hurry from the bedroom and down the stairs.
Before descending the dungeon steps, I could already hear Eric demanding answers, but he wasn't getting very far, the beast was not talking back.
"What the fuck are you?!" Eric shouts just as I appear.
The man was in human form and Eric or someone had been decent enough to give him some basic clothes to wear.
The man was huddled in the corner, but now, without the blood and the smeared mud, I could see that he wasn't that old. Maybe eighteen at a push. "What's your name?" I ask, keeping my tone level.
"He won't answer." Eric mutters. "I've been trying all night, he won't speak."
I turn to look at the young guy in the corner. They had strapped his legs down with chains, giving him little to no room to move.
"Are you injured?" I ask
The guys still doesn't look at me.
"Does Trey know we have you?"
He still sits in silence.
"Do you know Neah?"
His eyes flash my way. They are blue, exactly like Neah's. "Is she alright?"
"You are locked in a dungeon and your concern is if Neah is alright?"
"Please tell me you got her away? That you got her out of that house?"
Eric cocks his eyebrow at me.
"Who are you?" I ask, not giving him any information about Neah. "And what are you?"
"She doesn't know me, or at least I don't think she does. My name is Devon. I'm her true brother and I am what's called a Lycan, the same as Neah."
"What the fuck is a Lycan?" Eric snaps
"Exactly what you saw. Part Wolf, part human." His blue eyes move to mine. "Did you get her out?"
"What do you mean, true brother?" I demand
"Neah only has one brother and Trey isn't him."
"Don't bullshit me!"
"I will tell you everything." He stretches out his arms
"You would be the first." I snap, losing my patience
"I am not loyal to Moonshine. I am a Rogue." Devon tells us
'He's fucking nuts!' Eric links me
"Rogue?" It wasn't a term used among Wolves. You either belonged to a pack or you didn't.
"Rejected by my pack." Devon mutters unphased.
"Let's say you are telling the truth. How does Neah not know who you are?"
"The same way as she believes Trey is her older brother."
'I can't tell if he is lying or not.' Aero mutters
Devon points to his eyes. "Our eyes. They are identical, passed down through our mother and her mother and her mother before."
"Anyone can have similar eyes." I mutter
"You are right, they can, but what colour were Trey's eyes?" He smirks at me. "Look, why would I bother telling you this?"
"To buy yourself time!" I snap.
"I'm in a dungeon, I can't go anywhere." He mutters with a sarcastic tone.
"Let me see if I can get this straight. You are something called a Lycan. A man that claims to be Neah's younger brother.
Someone who she doesn't know. And Trey isn't related to her"
"Nailed it. Well almost. I didn't say he wasn't related. I said he wasn't her brother!"
"Who is he?"
"Our uncle!"
'So she is an Alpha.' Aero murmurs in shock.
'Being bound twice was not just because she has the essence of powerful blood. She is an Alpha by birth right. The first born.'
'If it's even true.'
"He doesn't believe the Alpha role should go to a female." Devon continues, "He portrayed himself as an older brother because of the bigger age gap between him and my father. The pack agreed with him."
"How do you know all this?"
"I had someone on the inside."
"Had?"
"They came here to check Neah had made it here, alive. I believe you killed him."
"He shouldn't have attacked my Wolves."
"Oh I know. I told him to be silent and unseen. It turns out, he did neither."
"How old are you?"
"Nineteen."
Three years younger than Neah. If he had indeed been removed from Neah's memory. She wouldn't know.
"I know you don't believe me, but you saw me, you saw what I look like in Lycan form. My adopted parents got a massive shock when I turned thirteen. Bless their souls." He smiles, his blue eyes shifting back to me.
"She doesn't know what she is, does she?" He checks his nails, picking dried blood from them.
"Why didn't you stop him?"
"Trey, I tried, several times. They got craftier. I couldn't even get near the house."
"They didn't kill you?"
"Oh they tried." He puffs out his cheeks.
"Please tell me she is alive. I don't have to see her. I don't have to talk to her. I just want to know that my sister finally got out from under Trey's thumb and that she is safe."
"She got out." I confirm
"Is she safe?"
"Yes."
"Can I talk to you?" Eric asks, using his head to gesture to the steps.
"Do you think he is telling the truth?" Eric asks me the moment we are outside.
"I don't know."
"He wouldn't say two words to me, yet the moment you come down, he tells you everything."
"Keep questioning him." I mutter. "I need to check out this Lycan shit. No violence," I warn him. "If he is truly her brother, I don't want her finding out that you beat him to a pulp."
"No violence." He confirms, "As always."
In my office, Neah is slowly spinning in my desk chair. She doesn't even hear me walk in and jams her feet into the carpet when she spots me, stopping the chair from turning. "Are you looking for something?" I ask. The need to tear her clothes from her body was growing more and more intense.
She nods, "You."
"You should have got someone to link me."
"I could wait. I'm used to waiting." She gives me a tight lipped smile
"How can I help you?"
"If I give you your heir, will that mean I can stay?"